


Jem Unmasked

by DesertVixen



Category: Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon)
Genre: But Also a Treat, F/M, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27267553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Rio finds out by accident...
Relationships: Jem | Jerrica Benton/Rio Pacheco
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Jem Unmasked

**Author's Note:**

  * For [entwashian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/entwashian/gifts).



She had thought he had left, had thought it was safe to change. She was tired of always being Jem lately, as if her holographic alter ego was the only one that anyone really cared about.

Now, Rio stood there, his eyes accusing her of lying.

Jerrica found she couldn’t stammer some quick excuse, some quick lie, like she had always done. Rio knew very well that Jerrica had not come on this trip to play a concert in Las Vegas. 

“You’re Jem.” He said it flatly. 

It was the moment she had been dreading ever since the first time she hadn’t told Rio she was Jem. She had wanted to, but it had never seemed like the right moment. She needed him so much – not just his skills with equipment, but him, his strength, his arms around her, his support – that she couldn’t make herself risk something happening to their relationship.

Every time she had tried, the words had been stuck in her throat. She simply could not make herself tell him, even though she knew the longer it went on, the worse it would be.

And Synergy had put so much emphasis on the need to protect their secret. Jerrica had nightmares about the time she had asked Synergy to simulate Rio so she could rehearse telling him, and the holo-Rio had reacted…badly. The holo-Rio had yelled and accused, and told her how much he hated liars. Then, when the real Rio had done the same thing to Kimber after she made the same date twice, it had been too much.

He wasn’t yelling now, just staring at her as if she was something distasteful.

She wanted to defend herself, to apologize, to plead but she just couldn’t seem to make her mouth work. This was the one fix Synergy couldn’t get her out of.

Then he turned, and walked past her as if she wasn’t even there.

“Rio!” His name finally burst out of her, and she poised herself to run after him, to explain, to plead, to do anything.

He stopped, looked back over his shoulder. “I don’t even know who you are now,” he hissed, and kept walking.

Jerrica collapsed against the wall, drawing her knees up and dropping her head on them as the torrent of tears came. If only he had yelled, maybe they could have worked things out, but that coldness was something she had never faced.

She had lost the one person she needed more than anyone else.

And it was all her own fault.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I wanted to do both the trick and treat for you!


End file.
